2,1 million more childless women than anticipated

In 2007 the projected number of women with children was expected to continue at the (somewhat modest but still increasing) predicted rate. Instead, the rate plummetted like a rollercoaster and now there are 2,1 million fewer women with children than the projections anticipated. This has been attributed to the financial crash, not completely but significantly.

"The 19.5 million women age 20–39 in 2016 who had never given birth was 12 percent more than demographers would have expected given child-bearing patterns just before the Great Recession. In 2016, there were 7 percent more women 20–39 than ten years earlier, but 22 percent more who had never had a child."carsey.unh.edu/publication/snapshot...

Do you think the new trend will continue? Note: this is data for the USA.

This is because women are no longer expected to make becoming a mother their ultimate goal in life, and since not all women want to be mothers, I think this is a good thing. It indicates women have more freedom than in past years to do or be whatever they want.

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“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."

This is because women are no longer expected to make becoming a mother their ...

Posted
09/14/2018

This is because women are no longer expected to make becoming a mother their ultimate goal in life, and since not all women want to be mothers, I think this is a good thing. It indicates women have more freedom than in past years to do or be whatever they want.

Is that since 2007, though? The birth rate was still increasing. I think it's more about finances and job security and will continue to decrease but will plateau eventually.

I don't think it will increase unless wages catch up with the cost of living, the healthcare system gets fixed, and the lack of affordable childcare and parental leave is addressed. I'm pregnant with my first child at 33, but it wouldn't have been an option if my husband and I hadn't received some financial help in the past from our parents.

On top of financial constraints, it's becoming more socially acceptable for women to focus on careers and choose to be childfree.

I agree that it's a good thing, and I think the trend will accelerate.

I'm actually quite amazed and relieved by the related trend toward negative population growth. When I was a kid, we were all going to die in a resource-less toxic soup of overpopulation and environmental destruction.

So long as we don't MAGA our way back to that reality, it seems like we might be out of the population crush woods in a generation or two.

Of course, then we'll face the problem of eternally-shrinking populations/economies and eventual extinction, unless the robots do all the work and let us make >2.2 babies per couple, or we develop immortality or some other sci-fi scenario.

Kids are expensive, time consuming, societal support for families is near nil, people needs two incomes.to live comfortably in general. Not shocking, most of my friends with kids have one or two due to cost, difficulties with work. We are not a country that places value in family.

I really don’t think it has much to do with choice, but lack of it. I really don’t understand how people have babies these days without going into insurmountable medical debt...with insurance! That’s as soon as the kid pops out. Nevermind decent childcare costs and everything else that goes into having a kid.
Then women are completely at risk for losing their job for some trumped up reason.

Along with all of the other reasons given, the people I know who don’t want children or only have 1 child also chose to do so for environmental reasons. I think we are more aware now of the destruction humans cause. More people, more waste, more destruction.

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